Old York County prison's former owners not happy with eminent domain as they await appraisal

The former owners say they had development plans, and the city's taking 'doesn't seem right'

The old York County Prison, shown earlier this year. Soon, the former owners will find out how much a court-appointed panel says York must pay them after taking the prison by eminent domain. (Daily Record/Sunday News -- File)

A court-appointed panel is expected to decide by Sept. 4 how much York's Redevelopment Authority must pay the former owners of the long-closed York County prison on Chestnut Street for taking the property by eminent domain.

A Board of Viewers hearing was held July 15 at which appraisers for the two sides -- the Redevelopment Authority and the property's former owners, John E. and Joyce E. Gearhart -- gave their opinions about how much the property is worth.

The property, in the city's Northeast neighborhood, is six stories and sits on 2.9 acres.

It's not known at this point how much each side says would be fair compensation for the property. The appraisals submitted at the hearing haven't been made public. The Gearharts had the property on the market in 2007 for $3.9 million.

The hearing was held on July 15. On Friday, John M. Ogden, the York attorney who chairs the Board of Viewers, asked the attorneys for both sides for an additional 20 days for the panel to file its report. That would make the date Sept. 4.

Eric Gearhart, whose parents owned the former prison for 32 years before the Redevelopment Authority took it in February, declined to discuss the specifics of the hearing. But Gearhart said he's not happy that the city seized the vacant prison when he had plans to redevelop the building.

Development plans unrealized

Gearhart said that in September 2012, he and Todd Bowser of Campbell Associates were putting together plans to redevelop the jail. They had several ideas for the property, including turning it into condominiums or a self-storage facility.

Advertisement

But, Gearhart said, when they tried to contact then-Community and Economic Development director Kevin Schreiber to discuss the possible plans and see what kind of approvals would be needed, Schreiber never responded.

"We needed their support to move forward with it," Gearhart said. "Our plan was to redevelop the property so it wasn't just sitting there."

In November 2012, the city's Community and Economic Development department notified the owners that the property was "blighted" for a long list of reasons, including that it was a fire hazard, an attractive nuisance to children in the neighborhood and that the plumbing and utilities had been removed from the building or were no longer functioning.

The notice said that if the deficiencies weren't addressed in 30 days, the matter would be forwarded to the Redevelopment Authority to commence condemnation proceedings. Gearhart said the repairs would have included replacing the prison's windows, which would have cost thousands of dollars, he said.

Gearhart's parents appealed the blight determination and had a hearing before the city's Nuisance Abatement Board of Appeals, but the agency board did not reverse the earlier decision, Gearhart said.

On Feb. 21 of this year, the Redevelopment Authority filed notice that it was taking the property by eminent domain.

That doesn't sit well with Gearhart.

"It's one thing to buy it," said. "It's another thing to take it. That doesn't seem right. That doesn't seem like the American way."

Schreiber said he doesn't remember Gearhart trying to contact him in 2012. But he and Gearhart had spoken about development possibilities "on numerous occasions over several years," Schreiber said. That included Schreiber putting together a meeting with city officials, at Gearhart's request, to discuss redevelopment of the prison.

David Cross, the chairman of the Redevelopment Authority, declined to say how much the RDA's appraiser said the property is worth.

Cross said he doesn't know if Gearhart contacted Schreiber. Cross also said it wouldn't be correct to suggest the city was unresponsive to Gearhart's redevelopment plans because it wanted to take the prison by eminent domain.

Rather, the RDA initiated eminent domain proceedings because of what Cross called "significant code issues" involving the prison.

"This property has been in decay for an extensive period of time," Cross said. "How long is something like this allowed to go on?

"We work with property owners. Despite what everyone thinks, we don't want to own these properties. We want to foster redevelopment."

Cross said he remembers Gearhart going before the RDA, possibly in 2009, with redevelopment plans for the prison that included a convention center, water park and an extension of Interstate 83 that would route traffic into the area. Gearhart confirmed that he and a development group met with the RDA about the project in either 2008 or 2009, and their plans included restaurants and a hotel with 200 rooms.

David Tshudy, a lawyer with the Harrisburg office of law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP, who represents John and Joyce Gearhart in the eminent domain proceeding, could not be reached.

Appeals could follow ruling

It is not uncommon for boards of viewers to come up with a valuation that is between the two appraisals, rather than accepting one over the other, said George Kroculick, co-chair of the real estate practice at law firm Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia, who is not involved in the case.

Once the board makes a final determination about how much the compensation should be, either side can file an appeal to the Court of Common Pleas to challenge the board ruling, Kroculick said. Such appeals are relatively common, he said.

It's not clear at this point what the city plans to do with the former prison building now that it has taken it by eminent domain. During a July 31 interview with York Daily Record/Sunday News editorial board, both Leonardo McClarty, the city's new economic and community development director, and York Mayor Kim Bracey each said the Redevelopment Authority didn't take the prison to turn it over to Think Loud Development, which plans to develop a string of data centers and a 400-mile, high-speed data network in the Northeast.

"You can't just let this kind of whale of a building just sit there and not touch it if you have the resources and the wherewithal to take it," McClarty said in the July 31 interview. "It's also not our job to just go and acquire it ... solely for one specific individual."

McClarty referred questions about the eminent domain proceeding to Cross, who heads the Redevelopment Authority.

Think Loud CEO Bill Hynes told the Daily Record/Sunday News in an interview in March that the company was looking at whether the prison could be rehabbed.

In an interview in July, Hynes told the newspaper that Think Loud hasn't committed to buying the former prison from the RDA.